Clippings: Air Canada DC8 hijacking, hijacker knocked out after 6-hour ordeal

Wild Ride in Air Canada Hijacking

From Page A1

sengers would be released, but after a half hour, the plane returned to Great Falls and the passengers were released there.

While the plane was on the ground in Great Falls, an unidentified FBI agent tried unsuccessfully to talk the hijacker into giving up. The plane took on 130,000 gallons of fuel at Great Falls for the possible flight to Ireland.

The plane took off for a second time with the pilot, Capt. Vernon Ehman, filing a flight plan for Phoenix, Ariz. But later the DC8 made a midcourse change and the plane headed for Calgary.

Five crewmen, including a stewardess, remained on the plane.

The passengers were tak- en by police van from the plane to the air terminal. Officers refused to let news- men talk with them.

Police said the hijacker warned the passengers not to talk about what happened on the four-engine aircraft or he would kill the crew. Officers said he had a tran- sistor radio and was listen- ing to local newscasts while the plane was on the ground.

One passenger, a young woman, appeared dis- traught and was placed in a wheelchair after she was helped out of the plane.

Stewardess Anna M. Smith told officials none of the passengers was aware

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of the hijack until the plane made its first landing here.

Policewoman Midge Ser- voss brought the money to the hijacker. She said the money was provided by the First Westside National Bank of Great Falls. She refused to disclose who or- dered the payment of the ransom.

Sean Kelly, an IRA repre- sentative touring Western Canada, told a Great Falls television newsman that his organization abhorred

jackings and disavowed the current attempt.

The plane landed at Great Falls International Airport, and the man gave the pilot 15 minutes to refuel and ob- tain the money. The pilot was ordered to circle the airport until the money was brought to the facility, about 100 miles south of the Canadian border.

The plane was carrying 115 paid passengers, three airline employees, and a crew of nine.

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MRS. MIDGE SERVOSS, a Great Falls, Mont., police- woman, sat in an auto last night holding part of the money she brought from a bank to give to the man who hijacked an Air Canada jetliner on route from Vancou- ver, B.C., to Montreal which he ordered to land at Great Falls to obtain the money. Authorities reported he was given $50,000. He had demanded $1.5 million. (AP Photo.)

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2 Arrested on Dope Charge

Two Alaskans, a man, 45, and a woman, 31, were ar- rested at a motel parking lot in the 18700 block of Pa- cific Highway S. after po- lice found them in posses- sion of two ounces of her- oin, police reported yester- day.

The two were ordered held in city jail on suspi- cion of narcotic law viola- tion.

Two ounces of heroin at street prices would be val- ued at more than $2,000, po- lice said.

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Legislators Get [illegible - text cut off]

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Come visit the exciting new Doces American Traditional Home located just north of Doces Aurora. All proceeds will to to Neighbors in Need.

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[partially illegible overlapping clipping] ...Canada and [the] United States at [the orders] of the hijacker... [he] claimed... ...the Irish... Army (IRA)... ...passengers... Great Falls... ...CALGARY (UPI) A masked man [who] hijacked [an] Air Canada... ...demanded $1.5 million... ...was captured when... ...hospitalized... ...Regina, Sask... ...DB Cooper 22370

Hijacker knocked out after 6-hour ordeal

CALGARY, Alberta -- (UPI) -- A masked hijacker carrying more than 40 pounds of dynamite was knocked unconscious today by an Air Canada crewman wielding a fire ax. The crewman's action 3,000 feet in the air ended a six-hour hijacking which skipped back and forth over the United States-Canadian border. The hijacker, reported in fair condition today with a possible skull fracture, was putting on a parachute to bail out of the DC8 over Calgary when he was struck by the ax. The hijacker, carrying a shotgun in addition to the dynamite, took control last night of the Calgary to Montreal flight carrying 123 persons. Claiming to be a member of the Irish Republican Army, the man demanded $1.5 million and a free passage to Ireland. (A touring I.R.A. spokesman denied that the hijacker belonged to the I.R.A.) After landing in Great Falls, Mont., the man accepted $50,000 ransom. The plane took off, landed again at Great Falls, and the man let the passengers go unharmed. But he ordered the plane with its five-member crew to take off again. [Inde]cision on the part of the hijacker led the plane back and forth across the border before he apparently decided to jump. An Air Canada official said that as the hijacker was preparing to jump, the pilot, Capt. Vernon Ehman, 42, jumped him and a purser came up behind him and "let him have it with a fire ax." Flight 812 made its first landing at Great Falls after the hijacker had taken over 40 miles west of Winnipeg, Manitoba. There it was refueled, and the $50,000 was handed to the hijacker by a policewoman. The money was raised by bankers as the plane circled the city for two hours. The plane then took off for a scheduled stop in Regina, Saskatchewan, to let the 114 passengers aboard disembark. The plane did not land in Regina, however, but turned back and set down in Great Falls again where the [pass]engers and three of the nine crew members were set free. On its second take-off from Great Falls, Air Canada officials said the hijacker wanted to be taken to New York City before proceeding to Ireland. The man, described as 5-feet-7, dark-haired and in his 30s, then decided he wanted to go to Phoenix, Ariz., but finally settled for Calgary. At Great Falls Airport, Gov. Forest Anderson and hundreds of onlookers stood by. Anderson said he came to persuade the hijacker to surrender or at least release the passengers. He never saw the hijacker, however.

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Cambodian troops flee city after siege

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- (AP) -- Cambodian soldiers abandoned the ruins of Rumlong today after a 19-day enemy siege, leaving behind more than 400 wounded, the high command announced. The garrison escaped in small groups from the town 52 miles northeast of the capital, and about 50 of the 1,000-man garrison have so far reached Cambodian lines, the command said. Reliable sources also reported that Communist-led forces had set fire to tanks in the capital's fuel-storage depot, but the extent of damage was not immediately determined. A heavy pall of smoke hung over the northern outskirts of Phnom Penh. The loss of Rumlong leaves a four-mile stretch of Highway 6 in North Vietnamese control. The retreat came while Cambodian reinforcements were only 100 yards from the town's northern outposts, a Cambodian spokesman said. The battle of Rumlong pitted Hanoi's 9th Division, reinforced by the 69th Artillery Regiment, against 20,000 Cambodian troops who had been engaged in an offensive to try to clear Highway 6.

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Newsman investigated F.B.I. probe 'clumsy,' -- Nixon

WASHINGTON -- (UPI) -- President Nixon has indicated he feels the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigation of Daniel Schorr, C.B.S. correspondent, was handled "in a clumsy way," according to the White House. Senator Sam J. Ervin, North Carolina Democrat, said his constitutional-rights subcommittee would investigate the incident. White House Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler told newsmen yesterday that because of his concern, Mr. Nixon has ordered "that whenever anyone is being considered for a government job that he always be informed beforehand and be told that the customary F.B.I. check is being made." The investigation of Schorr was first disclosed in Thursday's editions of The Washington Post, which said the probe was conducted mostly during the weekend of August 20 and involved questioning of Schorr's friends, neighbors and employers. The White House said Schorr was being considered for an administration environmental post. Schorr said he never was informed about the job. Ziegler said Mr. Nixon had planned to emphasize to reporters, if asked at his news conference yesterday, that "no intimidation was intend-ed in this case and never has

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Udall son listed as Army deserter

DB Cooper-2[?]371

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Nixo[n] spee[ch] troo[ps]

WASHINGTON President Nixo[n] ordered a spee[ch] States troop [withdrawal] from Vietnam t[o] move 45,000 mor[e] cember and Jan[uary] warned Hanoi [that] can forces will [?] china until ther[e] ated settlement [is] necessary to mai[ntain] ual force. Mr. [?] He said there [would] son for encourag[ing] he could speak [?]

Airli[ne] make[s] jumbo

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